This year marks the 27th anniversary of the 1989 École Polytechnique murders, when fourteen young women lost their lives.
Gender-based discrimination and violence against women continues to this day, especially in relation to aboriginal women and girls. The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is encouraging union members to reinforce calls for a National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and a National Action Plan on Violence against Women.
The CLC would also like trade unionists to support the YWCA’s Rose Campaign, and in particular, to participate in theirLight the Night Against Violenceaction on December 6th. So far, the campaign has arranged to light the CN Tower in Toronto and the Langevin Bridge in Calgary in red. Ottawa’s Coalition to End Violence Against Women plans to light the city in purple. CUPW National Office will be participating.
Violence against women is the world’s largest and most persistent human rights violation, and Canada is no exception. Over 50% of Canadian women will experience an incident of violence at some point in their lives, the majority before they turn 25. In most cases, women know their abuser.
Violence Against Women costs over$4 billion per year including direct medical costs along with those of criminal justice, social services, and lost productivity.
In Canada:
- Women are more likely than men to be the victims of the most severe forms of intimate partner abuse, including spousal homicide, sexual assault and stalking.
- Young women experience the highest rates of violence and the rate of violence by boyfriends is on the rise.
- Almost 40% of women in Canada who reported assault by an intimate partner said their children witnessed the violence and in many cases the violence was severe.
- In half of the cases of intimate partner violence against women that were witnessed by children, the woman feared for her life.
- The devastating count of missing and murdered Aboriginal women points to a deep-seated gendered and racialized violence in our culture.
What can you do to take action on violence against women:
- Go to www.rosecampaign.ca and take action to change women’s lives by sending an email to your MP
- Speak up about violence in your community
- Encourage people who commit violence to get help
- Teach girls to protect and empower themselves
- Raise Children who can resolve conflict without violence
- Make sure your home, workplace and community are safe for women and girls
- Speak out against negative media images of women and girls
- Promote women’s economic and political equality
- Support organizations that work to end violence against women
- Donate your time and support the cause
- REMEMBER